Responding to Difficulty

Reading this morning, which is found in the Old Testament book of Ezra.

And if you're using a Pew Bible, you'll find that on page 390.

We're going to be in Ezra chapter 3.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

And the reading will be verses 1 through 13.

Ezra 3 beginning in verse 1.

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.

Then arose Jeshua, the son of Josedak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen.

And they built the altar of God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it, as is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.

They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening, and they kept the feast of the booze, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule as each day required.

And after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings in the new moon, and all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a free will offering to the Lord.

From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord.

But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.

So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from the king from Cyrus, king of Persia.

Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month Zerubbabel the son of Sheeltiel and Jehua, the son of Josedak made a beginning together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites, and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity.

They appointed the Levites, and from twenty years old and upward to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.

And Jehua with his sons and his brothers, and Cadmiel and his sons, and the sons of Judah together, supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites and their sons and brothers.

And when the builders laid the foundations of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph with symbols to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David, king of Israel.

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.

And all the people shouted with a great shout, and they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid.

Though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of joyful shout from the sound of people's weeping.

For the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

Here ends the reading of God's Word.

Well, it's a great pleasure today to have uh speaking to us and to have here to minister to us uh one of our former youth pastors from of old, um, affectionately known as the Pastor of Disaster.

We we just have to keep that title going, Mike.

Um Mike Montgomery, please welcome me.

He's a pastor at Salem E-Free and Fargo, and he's here today to minister.

Please give Mike a warm welcome.

Well, what a pleasure to be back here and uh to minister to you today is uh simply a time of of love and affection, and I look around and see so many faces.

None of you have changed.

Uh you look just as skinny and and handsome and beautiful as you always have.

I want to get that first lie out of the way.

Thank you, Scott, also for uh reading that lengthy passage of scripture with all those Jewish names, and so when we come to that today, uh I'll just pass over that and substitute Johnson and Anderson and things like that.

Well, I'm privileged to be here, and my wife Joan is back here.

There's raise your hand, Joan, so everybody sees you.

So we're glad to be here, and especially thankful that you called uh today to minister to you in this time of transition, and I want to bring a message about that uh today.

And uh there's changes is is not unusual, is it?

But there's hard changes and there's difficult changes, and I want to talk about this morning responding to difficulty because that's what the church is in transition.

I love this church.

Uh I came here when I was 18 years old and came to Christ through Campus Crusade for Christ and started coming to this church.

And the Carners had us over to eat about a week after, and uh and then the basketball team trailed us, and we had the God Squad, and people came to Christ through that, and then we went off to missions and then uh to into the pastorate.

And we last week were or a couple weeks ago, we were down in Minneapolis, I played basketball out at UND, and we had our 43rd reunion of playing the Minnesota Gophers, and none of us had changed a bit.

One guy had a bad knee.

I've got Parkinson's, uh, among other things.

And one guy had throat cancer, just got off that, and the guy had a bad hip.

And we went down and met the players.

We went down in the court where we actually shot, where the guy blocked my shot into the bleachers and the elevated thing, and just held the ball and wouldn't give it up, thought he could keep it like a football.

Uh, it was really quite hilarious.

But uh I'm here today to talk about what the goodness of the Lord and in his house and uh to encourage and uh comfort you uh as you seek new senior leadership.

And I know this is a difficult time, but people can change.

Uh, one of the gals in our church told her husband, You're the least romantic man I've ever met.

And he was so surprised at that, and he thought, Well, I can't be the least.

Uh I've got to do something about it.

And so I said, Why don't you read the Song of Solomon?

That's quite romantic.

He said, We tried that.

And I said, he said, but I got another book that's worked even better.

It's Bar The Farmer's Almanac, and it's called Fifty Grades of Hay.

So that's really worked out well for us.

I knew that one might bomb, but that's always a chance you take.

Again, I'm not responsible for some of these jokes.

Um, we went on light of these changes that are coming to you.

I wanted to read from Ezra chapter 3.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

Because how we respond to changing times reveals our character.

And I think that's up on the slide there.

Response to change reveals a lot about us, our strength of character, our love for God and others, doesn't it?

And how we pull together and how we respond, whether we're divisive or the unified.

And in these upcoming days, you're going to need, in the time of transition, you're going to need uh some time to work together.

Uh, someone said uh that there's only two ways to respond to change, and that is to give up or stand up.

And I think that's what the church is facing today is as you begin new leadership in the upcoming days, in the time of transition, I know this church is gonna stand up.

It always has.

It's got a rich legacy of uh adherence to the word of God, of love for one another, and uh and for making it through difficult times.

Do I hear an amen on that?

All right, that's how it's gonna be, and that's what I'm gonna talk about this morning.

Um again, there's in a book called Necessary Endings by uh Dr.

Henry Cloud, which uh says that changes are normal, they're predictable, they're inevitable, and just as the seasons change, people must adjust to the changes.

If you don't recognize winter, and this has been quite the winter, uh, if we have one of our normal winters, you have to adjust, you have to make the changes.

And that's what he's saying.

He said, nature is our biggest witness to that, to the change.

But Solomon, of course, uh, business uh just regarding that, business has life cycles, organizations have life cycles, and uh there's changes that need to take place.

Change doesn't always have to be negative either, does it?

Uh there was a man at our church who lost some weight, some 30 pounds, and he he he said, I waited to lose 30 pounds, and he's got some health problems.

He said, so I could still wear my favorite sweater.

And I said, How old's that sweater?

And he says, 30 years.

And I said, Well, it sweater is kind of out of date, and he goes, Not if you lose 30 pounds.

And so there's a way to always uh acquiesce ourselves to something, but uh really there's a change is inevitable.

Target uh lay enough, it's Canadian operation the other day, and my nephew is one of the big weeks for Target, and one of his biggest decisions, as he just got appointed to the executive committee, was to lay off the Canadian operation, which his brother was involved with as well.

17,000 people lost their jobs, but$5.4 billion in losses, uh they needed to make a change.

And sometimes uh we need to make change in personnel and policies and other things, and it's just part of church culture.

It's not the death of a church, it's a change in course correction, right?

And a course correction is uh a scientific term, and I always like to throw out something scientific and to show that my intellectual acumen, uh I've just memorized what those two words mean as well.

It means that uh the the spacecraft is off trajectory.

Then they fire, they take up some vector measurements, they fire the thrust and it gets back into orbit, right?

Well, let me tell you about my high school uh diploma.

Uh what are they?

The cum lata, summa cum lata?

What are they?

Magna cum lata, and for my I I finished fourth.

My dad said, it's for uh you could have uh done a lotza beta.

And I said, that's not it, that just made up.

And he said, uh, that's right.

Go pick up your high school diploma.

Uh mine was just in a pile over here.

It wrote to whom it may concern.

And it actually had a picture of a seal on it, and you wrote in your own name.

So again, I really appreciate that science metaphor.

Uh what does that mean?

It means to get course correction, you get back on track.

And uh there's no better way to say that there's a time for change than, of course, this one from Ecclesiastes, as we press store.

Do you have the Ecclesiastics one down there?

Let's all stand and read that, because I think that's something we want to talk about today.

And let's just start.

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to change.

All right, thank you.

So there is a time for change, but how we respond to change is what I'm talking about here today, and there's no better way, example, than to turn in our scriptures to Ezra chapter 3, because uh it was a very much of a difficult time for the Israelites as they got back from the Babylonian captivity.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

And uh and so uh our study today relies on Ezra chapter 3.

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

Have you experienced severe disappointment in your life?

Raise your hand.

All of us have, but to the extent that, like a tornado or tsunami or a house fire or something like that that's come in where you lost your possessions, your home, your loved things, this is what was taking place back in 537, according to a sermon called Overcoming Disappointment from Dr.

Ray Pritchard.

The year is 537 BC, the place is Jerusalem.

The Jews had just returned from a long captivity in Babylon.

Some have been gone from the homeland for 70 years, others have been gone for 50 years.

They were sent in captivity as part of God's judgment of generations of disobedient.

Now, at last the first ways of Jews returned to the land, but everything had changed.

The countryside is in the hand of the enemies, the city of Jerusalem lies in ruins, the walls have been torn down, the buildings have been looted, and worst of all, the great temple built by Solomon 500 years ago is gone.

It's banished, it's utterly destroyed.

So complete was the work that it seemed as if the temple in all its glory had been some strange dream.

The Babylonians took the gold and silver and everything else of value.

The temple itself was raised, the Ark of the Covenant is gone, and the altar of sacrifice is gone, the temple instruments, implements are gone, in place it lies a field of rubble.

Now, you can't get much worse than that, can you?

It was just utterly devastating.

And as we look at the first six verses, what I want to talk about of Ezra chapter 3, 1 through 6 is the face that the fact is that what was their response?

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

The response is that they went back to work.

They went back to work, and I want to just make some simple observations about this.

That you can be despondent, you can be dejected, you can be disappointed, but eventually the right thing to do is get back to work, right?

And that's what I want to say today to encourage you.

Um the first thing from uh the first verses is um when the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem.

They were unified.

They were unified, they gathered together as one.

Now, my understanding, and I have no insight onto what's taking place as far as the leadership change here goes at this church, but it must have been difficult, right?

And it must have been difficult to make this decision.

But after the decision is made, you must come back together as one.

One purpose.

Jesus, it said in Luke 2.52, increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

He got back and gotten in favor with one another, and so they became unified.

And that's the first principle that you must come as one family again.

And this family has been through some ups and downs over the years.

I remember when Pastor Vick went out on his six months sabbatical, remember that?

And guess who they threw in?

Yours truly.

All right, for six months, and other people came from inside.

The uh Jay Anderson and other people came to speak, and we just rotated sermons, and I think probably Frank got in there somehow and others.

Uh anybody remember that?

And the church just kept going on because it's not about one person, it's about doing the will of God, and so gifted people are there.

And sometimes you have people that uh uh have various gifts that you that come together, and that's the next point uh that I want to talk about, but first it's I'll tell you a joke because it reminds me of this about the guy who's driving down the street.

About sometimes you have right in within you, and this church has within us the strength to uh to go ahead.

It said, talking pig, ten bucks.

And he said, uh pulled over the side of the road and he goes, That must be a misprint.

There's no such thing as a talking pig, and the farmer said, He's in back.

So the guy goes in back and he sees this pig on a hammock smoking a Cuban cigar before Obama let the Cubans back in.

And uh he said uh he said, What about uh are you the talking pig?

And he says, Yes, I am.

He said, Tell me a little bit about you.

He said, I was in the the Navy for 14 years and I was in espionage.

And the guy says, Well, that sounds pretty interesting, thinking, I can make millions on this pig.

He's a talking pig.

And so he goes back to the farmer and he says, Uh, how come it's just 10 bucks?

He said, The pig is a talking pig.

And he said, The pig's a liar.

He was in the Air Force.

I say that there's talent among us, and sometimes you don't recognize that.

Second lesson we have not only they were unified, but Joshua, the son of Josedek and the fellow priests from chapter verse number two, and Zerubbul, the son of Sheotiel and his associate, began to build the altar of God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings in it, in accordance with what was written in the law of God.

They were organized and obedient.

Organized and obedient.

And so they were going to obey what God had told them, speak the truth in love, uh, forgive one another, love one another.

But they got organized and they had special uh people appointed for tasks.

And some things are some people are better at certain things than others.

Would you agree with that?

Some people can encourage and some people work behind the scenes, and you need to organize those people for best work.

Uh I remember the last time I went to fix a ceramic tile in front of our house at the doorway, and Joan said, please, please, I beg you, there are better men than you at church that can do this.

Thank you, Hun.

So they were organized, number two.

So you'll have to get back on track to look for a new pastor.

And uh you'll want to be on communities or committees.

The third thing that they were uh from verse uh three says, despite the fear of the people around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings unto the Lord.

They were persevering.

As you know from the book of Nehemiah, that uh that the fields had been filled with foreigners, and they were afraid that the Israelites coming back would take over the land, and so they were opposed to them building the altar, renewing sacrifices, and especially to build a temple.

And so uh people are always happy to see mischief happen to Christian organizations.

Do you know that?

Isn't that weird?

They say, so you have a little problem at your church.

Well, that's just how church is.

No, that's not how church is.

Church is persevering through tough times.

And so we followed the word of God and we're obedient, and they went back and obeyed what uh God had told them about laying down the altar and getting back to obedience.

And so just because it's a time of transition doesn't mean it's a time of trouble.

Can I say that?

Just because it's a time of transition, it's not a time of trouble.

It's getting organized, it's being unified, and of course, it's persevering.

And uh that perseverance is what built this church, and that's what the church is known for.

Then, as we continue to say that uh in verse 4 through 6, and in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the festival of tabernacles, they go on with the burnt offerings, and after that they presented the regular burnt offerings, new moons, appointed sacred festivals.

They take free will offerings to the Lord.

So they get back giving, right?

They don't stop their giving as a protest about how the way that was handled.

They get right back to obedient giving, operating as normal.

I should say the first time I came to this church, I thought it was a free church, there would be no offerings.

You know, I thought the first time, well, they should they did something different there.

Uh and I came from a Catholic background, and I was just happy to go to a place where he didn't have to give.

Nonetheless, they gave, they didn't stop giving.

And so that's important.

They were worshipful.

That's the the fourth point.

They were worshipful, and uh they finished the altar of God.

Isn't that wonderful?

Okay, they were so committed to.

Doing the work of God that they finish the altar of God.

So 1 through 6 says they're unified, they're organized, they're persevering, and of course they're worshipful.

And because of that, they enjoyed this time of coming back.

But second, not only did they build the altar, uh, but they began building uh and they excuse me, they were worshipful.

They they started going in chapter 7, or chapter 3, verse 7 through 13.

Uh they were resourceful.

They gave money to the masons and the carpenters.

I assume the Kowanas was not around at that time.

They gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre so they could bring cedar logs by sea from the Lebanon to Joppa, as organized by King Cyrus of Persia.

And so they were resourceful.

They went to get the materials.

You're going to search for a new pastor, and it might become from faraway land, maybe Mayville.

And uh you'll look at places like that, downtown Cooperstown, uh, or maybe someplace in Dallas, or wherever God brings this person, you need to be prepared to receive him, be resourceful.

And so they began to build the all the temple and they got the resources.

And so some people can give their time, some can give their talent, uh, some people can provide nursery, uh, some people can cook.

Uh I've admired the people.

People always say, What is it like to preach?

I said, It's terrible.

Because you stand up in front of people and you try to tell them something, then they have better ideas than you do.

But it's better than nothing.

Uh some people have the greater gifts, such as ushering and greeting and uh keeping the grounds clean.

And I've come to appreciate them so very, very much.

And uh again, it's my privilege to bring the Word of God, but we're all in this together, right?

Everybody pulls together, and so they were resourceful.

Um, they were also industrious.

We can't limit the fact that the second month, second year, these guys were hard workers.

They brought all the sons and brothers of Cadmile and his sons, and they uh they were resourceful and then they were industrious.

Hard work covers a, like love covers a multitude of sins.

Doesn't it?

Somebody's got to do something.

Somebody was we were at our church the other day, and they said, you know what, if somebody has to do something, somebody should tell someone what they should do.

I don't know what that meant.

Uh I said, Well, thanks for sharing that wisdom.

And they said, uh, well, that's my part.

I've got the gift of discernment.

So I don't know what they meant, but I just kept going.

They were industrious.

Uh verses 10 when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments of trumpets, and all the Levites got together to do their job, and uh they became full of praise.

Isn't that wonderful?

As they did all their job and they worked hard, they became full of praise.

Their lips towards thanksgiving and their praises towards God, because they saw that God had not left them.

In fact, God was with them.

Right?

And so, in a time of transition, God is going to be with you.

I know he's going to be.

Amen.

And so then they were full of praise, and uh there's much to give praise about.

Psalm 40 says this in verses 1 through 3.

I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned and heard my cry.

And he took me out of the slippery pit, out of the miry clay, and established my foot upon a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand, and he put a new song of praise in my mouth, even praise to the Lord.

Many shall see it and put their trust in him.

Right?

All those who have the glory of salvation remember when they were lost and did not know Christ.

Remember the days when you got found, rescued by Jesus.

Then he puts you on a rock, a firm place where you can have your ministry, give your testimony, and many will see it and put their fear of God.

That's the nature of this church.

That's what this church has always been about.

It's the salvation story, the centrality of the gospel.

And so they became full of praise as they began to build the temple, and everything looks good.

Except for the last thing.

Many remember the golden days, and they became reminiscent.

And that'll be our fact here today, too, is that the fact is they look back and they're old enough to remember the great Solomon's temple.

They remember the harmony that was in the church or in the temple.

But the older people were reminiscent and began to cry about that.

Maybe there's some times in our church history where it's been better than other times.

And certainly times of transition don't seem to be as good as other times.

But there were days, and the older people will remember them.

When people got lost going to Warren, people got in a blaze up in uh in northern Canada and had to be flown out by the Red Cross.

There were days when there's bomb threats and we had to get off the plane.

There's days when I was going to Grafton and got lost in Pemina.

There's more behind that story than you want to know.

And there was days when Vic would be preaching here and he'd have at least a 45-minute message, and I'd had the prayer, and he'd say, Buck, you gotta hustle up the prayer today.

I got a lot to say.

I said, I've only got two minutes of prayer, and he goes, just rush.

And Vic was such a uh great leader, spent here about 10 years.

Vic never knew my name.

Uh he always called me Mel Nelson, called me Matthew, uh, he called me uh Eric one day.

He's like, I work every day with you, Vic.

And uh so he was a treat.

And sitting next to him was like sitting next to George Beverly Shea, only without a voice.

So we address each other as Buck now.

He calls me Buck, I call him Buck.

Okay, and those days were very exciting, and uh, we had softball teams with Dusty and others, and everybody could actually run.

Now we just play video games.

But those are days reminiscent of golden times when people were coming to Christ and there was staff harmony and other things like that.

So people remembered the good old days.

But the good old days are past, aren't they?

The better days are coming.

The better days are coming.

When it's time of transition, it's gonna be difficult.

We can hear people say they're mourning and they're grieving about the process, but what's important is the fact is that you're gonna get to the other side.

Because this church is gonna stand up, and even though we know that there's some other times that were at least more exciting, if not beneficial.

And by the way, I'm glad to hear this Czechoslovakian project is still going.

I remember telling Vic, Vic, I think we should have a Czechoslovakian sister church relationship, and he goes, You're absolutely nuts.

He said, We've got enough trouble right here.

What do we need to go overseas for?

Then a few years later they announced they're going to Czechoslovakia and sister church.

I said, Vic, I'm sure you acknowledged my part in that.

And he said, What part was that?

And uh so, well, here's our application.

Here's our application.

Changes are difficult for everyone, but not unusual.

Address your new reality.

Address the new reality.

This is a time of transition.

All right, next go to work.

Do your part to make this transition work out.

Be a blessing to others.

And then the next one strive for unity.

There's people that can say a lot of different things from different points of view.

But recognize and each has a unique perspective.

One more up there.

Recognize you have a common goal, but diverse opinions.

A common goal but diverse opinions.

Isn't that important?

And then I'd like to change charge you with this one thing that has helped both Joan and I.

It was from a friend of mine who's a psychologist in Phoenix, and I asked him one day, are you a psychologist for me, or are you just my friend?

And he said, one never knows.

But I'd like you to say this, if you would.

This is a powerful way.

I hear you, I understand you.

Is it okay if I have a different point of view?

One more time.

I hear you, I understand you.

Is it okay if I have a different point of view?

That way you acknowledge that you're listening, you're understanding, and you recognize people can have a different point of view.

It's very liberating.

I've said this to Joan many times.

Johan, I hear you, I understand you.

Is it okay if I have a different point of view?

And she said, No, it isn't.

And I said, Well, no, this is supposed to work.

So I still have a point of view, even if you disagree that I shouldn't have a point of view.

So now I'm going to say, I hear you and understand you.

I know you don't agree with my different point of view.

Whatever.

But isn't that a good statement?

Write that one down and practice that one.

Then finally, uh love one another.

Love one another.

Love is patient, and love is kind.

Love covers a multitude of sins.

And so, by way of review, then we've talked about a number of things that have been important to us.

And uh the fact is that people were worshipful, they were workers, they're unified, they're organized.

Uh, the various things that we said on their outline, which I can't recall, uh, they loved one another.

You're gonna make it because you're gonna stand tall.

And so that's my message of encouragement for you today as you work in this transition to time together.

You'll make it because you love one another, you love the Lord, and character is revealed in times of testing.

Let me pray for you.

And let me first say I love you.

You've meant so much to me and my family.

We're indebted forever to you, and uh, any way we can help.

By the way, thanks for calling me on short notice.

Uh somebody said that you're always available.

That's right, because nobody asked me to speak.

But uh again, I appreciate you uh the opportunity to minister to you, Lord God.

We love you, we bow down before you, we worship you, we're humbled by your mercy, by your redemption story.

And we know that you had to adjust to change, adjust to many different things while you're uh on earth, and for the joy that was set before you, you uh uh uh endured the pain and despised the shame and went out and still filled your task.

So we pray for these this dear church, transition time that they have.

May they be blessed as they obey you, and may they go to work.

May they strive for unity, may they love one another, may they recognize their differences.

So we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.